Just in case your cold, cold heart needed any more evidence that other animals can have fun, watch this video of Beco, a 5-year-old elephant at the Columbus Zoo, play with a ball. »3/31/14 6:41pm 3/31/14 6:41pm

Harry Potter is getting a prequel, but it's not a book or movie about the Marauders at Hogwarts or the rise of Voldemort. Instead, it's a stage show about Harry Potter's life before he received that precious acceptance letter. »12/21/13 9:30am 12/21/13 9:30am

What does a culture look like when recreation is forbidden? The Baining, an indigenous group in Papua New Guinea, values work as the highest human ideal, and views play as domain of animals. This has led some anthropologists to deem them "unstudiable" because of their failure to do anything interesting. But a… »7/29/12 11:00am 7/29/12 11:00am

While American audiences are waiting for The Hunger Games to blaze into movie theaters, Filipino audiences are getting a different sort of dystopian theater experience. A theater troupe has adapted Battle Royale for the stage, but there's something uncomfortable about watching teenagers pretend to kill each other… »2/29/12 2:00pm 2/29/12 2:00pm

When we try to understand past civilizations, we usually focus on political structures and religious rituals - the sorts of things that form the cultural backbone of a fledgling society. But humans know how to mix in a little play with all that work...and in this mysterious, 4000 year old civilization on the Indus… »2/07/11 12:47pm 2/07/11 12:47pm

Back in April, we told you that Troma Productions was planning
a new musical adaptation »10/14/08 2:00pm 10/14/08 2:00pm of its campy cult classic . This month, audiences in New Jersey can watch Melvin Ferd the Third fight the forces of evil with the help of his superstrength and a four-piece rock band. Not sure if it’s worth schlepping to New Jersey…